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Tuesday, February 3, 2015

755. Iraqi Potato Rice

If you can cook dried packaged pasta using a large bowl of salted boiling water, you can just as easily cook this amazing fluffy, buttery rice, with its unbelievably golden crispy potato rounds.To make this rice extra-special, a pinch of saffron is powdered and diluted in a bit of water to dye and flavor a portion of the cooked rice, yielding a happy sunshine yellow hue.
This potato rice hails from the Eastern Provinces of Iraq, which are somewhat influenced by neighboring style of cooking.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil (same as cooking pasta) and boil your rinsed rice for 7 minutes.
Drain the lot and let the rice sit in the strainer while preparing the following.
Peel and cut the potato into 1/4 inch rounds.
In the same pot you boiled the rice in, heat the oil over med-high heat and place the potato rounds to cover the base and bring to a sizzle.
Salt the potatoes. Return the rice to the pot over the potatoes without compressing it.
Dot the surface with the butter. Cover the lid of the pot with a towel.
Cover the pot with the towel-lid, bring the heat down to low, and let steam for 45 minutes.
You now have perfect fluffy steamed rice.
Grind the saffron to a powder using a mortar and pestle. Add two tablespoons hot water.
Remove roughly a quarter of the rice and toss it in the saffron water.
To serve, put all the white rice in the serving bowl. Top with the yellow saffron rice.
Surround with the unbelievably crispy golden potatoes